An Inclusive Community
We are committed to increasing access to our program for BIPOC students. We offer scholarships to PEN’s Emerging Voices Fellows and increased funding options for the emerging voices we want to support and read. We listen, learn and aim build an inclusive community through sustained dialogue and practice.
Inclusion & Equity
We listen, reflect, engage, and facilitate proactive conversations. We read books that reflect world voices. We cultivate an antiracist and social justice reading list. We commit to solidarity and action. Our Office of Diversity and Inclusion is central to our commitment. Beyond The West is a reading list we actively cultivate.
One Book
The Bennington community reads a book collectively each term for our One Book initiative. Each book is selected by our students. Many times, the book has been published by a Visiting Writer and we have the pleasure of organizing a lunchtime discussion. Most recent books read for One Book include: Natalie Diaz When My Brother was an Aztec, Monica Youn Blackacre, Jamel Brinkley A Lucky Man
World Lit Café
Students and faculty organize World Lit Cafe to read works from global voices and to discuss their intellectual and cultural footprint in the world of letters and beyond. Students, alumni, and faculty keep a list of books to recommend to students as they compile their reading lists with their teachers.